A.3. Installation

Once the installer starts, you will be greeted with an initial screen. Press
Enter to boot, or read the instructions for other boot
methods and parameters (see Section 5.2, “Boot Parameters”).

After a while you will be asked to select your language. Use the arrow keys
to pick a language and press Enter to continue. Next you'll be asked to
select your country, with the choices including countries where your
language is spoken. If it's not on the short list, a list of all the
countries in the world is available.

You may be asked to confirm your keyboard layout. Choose the default unless
you know better.

Now sit back while debian-installer detects some of your hardware, and
loads the rest of itself from CD, floppy, USB, etc.

Next the installer will try to detect your network hardware and set up
networking by DHCP. If you are not on a network or do not have DHCP, you
will be given the opportunity to configure the network manually.

Now it is time to partition your disks. First you will be given the
opportunity to automatically partition either an entire drive, or free
space on a drive. This is recommended for new users or anyone in a hurry,
but if you do not want to autopartition, choose manual from the menu.

On the next screen you will see your partition table, how the partitions
will be formatted, and where they will be mounted. Select a partition to
modify or delete it. If you did automatic partitioning, you should just be
able to choose Finished partitioning from the
menu to use what it set up. Remember to assign at least one partition for
swap space and to mount a partition on /.
Appendix B, Partitioning for Debian has more information about partitioning.

Now debian-installer formats your partitions and starts to install the base system,
which can take a while. That is followed by installing a kernel.

The last step is to install a boot loader. If the installer detects
other operating systems on your computer, it will add them to the boot menu
and let you know.

debian-installer will now tell you that the installation has
finished. Remove the cdrom or other boot media and hit Enter
to reboot your machine. It should boot up into the next stage of the install
process, which is explained in Chapter 7, Booting Into Your New Debian System.